Worcester may drop controversial pit bull ordinance

The city is moving to bring its rules governing the licensing and regulation of dogs into conformance with comprehensive statewide animal control regulations that took effect Oct. 31.

City Manager Michael V. O'Brien is recommending that the Pit Bull Ordinance, enacted by the City Council in 2011, be repealed, and that the dangerous nuisance dog provisions previously enacted be deleted. He proposes an amendment that makes the changes.

The council passed the pit bull ordinance after many dog attacks.

But City Solicitor David M. Moore said the new state law repealed the local option statute, adopted by the council in 1986, that gave the city power to enact a local ordinance regulating dogs.

He said the new state law also bans the regulation of dogs based on breed, and contains specific provisions concerning dangerous and nuisance dogs.

“Given the repeal of local statutory authority to regulate dogs and the comprehensive nature of the new state law, it is necessary to delete the bulk of the existing city dog ordinance and to implement operational policies and procedures directly under the new state law,” Mr. Moore wrote in a report that goes before the council tomorrow night.

“The proposed ordinance amendment would retain certain ordinance provisions either required by the new state law or, if not required, then necessary for the implementation of the law,” he added.

The new state law also has revised the process in which the police would investigate dog complaints and the chief could order dogs to be restrained, removed from the city or destroyed.

In its place, Mr. O'Brien said, the new law institutes a complaint and hearing procedure whereby dog complaints will result in a hearing held before a hearing officer, who may issue orders “requiring the dogs to be confined to the owner's premises, restrained by leash or muzzle when off premises, insured, reproductively altered or destroyed.”

To carry out that provision of the law, the manager has designated Elvira Guardiola, the city's parking administrator and municipal hearing officer, to act as the hearing authority for animal control complaints.

“I do not foresee any change in the enforcement efforts of the chief of police and Animal Control Unit,” Mr. O'Brien said.

Mr. Moore said the new state law requires the city to set the fees for a dog license by ordinance approved by the council.

The licensing fees would be $20 for all dogs, except spayed or neutered dogs, for which the fee is $17.

The new law also requires that the fee be waived for service animals as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it allows municipalities to waive the license fee for dogs owned by people 70 years old and older.

Mr. Moore said the new ordinance being recommended retains the “duties of dog owners” provisions.

The most notable of those provisions prohibit owners from allowing their dogs to run free off their premises, or to be in any city park, playground or public cemetery, or to be in public in the downtown — bounded by Irving, Linden and Harvard streets to the west; Madison Street to the south; Interstate 290 to the east; and Concord Street to the north — unless the dog is licensed at an address within that area.

A simple majority (six votes) of the council is necessary to adopt the ordinance amendment.